Most teachers teach in isolation day in and day out and rarely, if ever, see a colleague teach. Independent schools rightly value autonomy, giving teachers the freedom to shape their classrooms around their own professional expertise and students’ needs. Yet, that same freedom can also mean that a closed door becomes the default. Learning walks are short, non-evaluative peer observations; they are one of the most effective forms of professional learning and one of the best ways to open that door without giving up autonomy.
This resource gives school leaders the research, tools, and templates to help teachers and staff plan, implement, reflect on, and set goals for improving their teaching through learning walks. When we open our doors for learning walks, we let in opportunities for growth, collaboration, and belonging for our teachers and better learning experiences for our students.
Built for a Culture of Continual Learning
The SAIS Teaching & Learning Framework describes Continual Learning as the guiding frame that shapes how a school reflects on, measures, and scales everything else it does, the culture that exists when every stakeholder engages with curiosity, reflection, experimentation, and collaborative improvement. Learning walks are one of the clearest, most concrete ways to build that culture in practice, giving faculty a structured, recurring reason to reflect together on what’s actually happening in classrooms, not as a special initiative bolted onto the calendar, but as an ordinary part of how the school learns.
Learning walks are built on a premise of trust and safety for authenticity and on a simple shift in who the practice is really for. Traditional evaluative observations put the observed teacher at the center, generating feedback for them to act on. Learning walks make the observer the central learner. The point isn’t to evaluate the teacher being watched; it’s for the visiting teacher to walk away with something they can use in their own classroom tomorrow. That’s why learning walks are short, focused, and explicitly non-evaluative.
A team agrees on one specific thing to look for, whether that’s a questioning technique, a student-talk pattern, or how a lesson opens, and observers capture what they see rather than rating what they think of it. The conversation afterward, not just the walk itself, is where meaningful reflection happens that pushes learning forward: comparing notes, asking questions, and deciding together what to try next.
“A faculty’s culture of reflection shows up in the classroom experiences students have.”
That structure is exactly what builds growth, collaboration, and belonging among faculty. The SAIS Teaching & Learning Framework names peer observation cycles directly as a way schools create clear structures for feedback and participation, strengthening Relational Intelligence, the trust and collaborative habits that hold a faculty together. When teachers choose their own observation partners and reflect on their own terms, a learning walk stops feeling like something done to them and starts feeling like something they’re choosing to do together. For teachers used to working behind a closed door, that shift, from isolation as the default to connection as a choice, matters.
None of this stays contained to the adults in the building. A faculty’s culture of reflection shows up in the classroom experiences students have. Instructional learning walks, when built around a precise focus, help leaders see whether students are experiencing transformational learning that aligns with the school’s mission or not. A faculty that practices looking closely and talking honestly about instruction is better equipped to make sure every student gets high-quality learning experiences that reflect the school’s values.
Getting Started With Learning Walks
Learning walks work best when they grow out of practices your school already has, not as one more thing added to the calendar. Use faculty meeting time for real reflection instead of logistics. Let teachers choose who they observe and protect time for the debrief conversation afterward. Start small, with one grade level or one team, and let the practice earn its own momentum.
- Where in your calendar could a learning walk replace a logistics-focused meeting?
- Who chooses learning walks partners or teams, and who decides on the focus of the learning walk?
- What happens with teachers’ observations from learning walks? Is there a debrief, or does it end at the classroom door?
- Where have you seen a bright spot worth sharing across the school?
- How will you know if learning walks are building trust and collaboration among teachers, not just checking a box?
- What evidence would tell you that students are getting a stronger learning experience because of learning walks?
Resources & Tools
These ready-to-use templates help leaders implement learning walks to support a culture of Continual Learning. Begin here and modify to fit your school’s mission.
Learn More About Implementing Learning Walks
SAIS Members: For more information about implementing Learning Walks at your school, check out our webinar “Walking the Talk: Instructional Rounds and Learning Walks”.